Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

386 страница из 495

Several other accumulations of Western artifacts were profiled during this period. One of the more significant was the 47-year weapon collection of George Shull. In 1873, Shull’s collection started as an innocent gathering of working guns and wound up as an assemblage of remnants of the Western tradition. His guns included Civil War battlefield pick-ups, brass framed Winchesters, Spencers, even Evans rifles and the rest, totaling nearly 50 reminders of better times. A white-goateed Mr. Shull posed with his assortment of mementos for a picture taken at his Iowa home, and it was published in the January, 1920 number of the Magazine of the West.

Jas. N. Sterling submitted a photo and brief descriptions of his 30-year gatherings in December of 1917. In the collection were three Sharps rifles, the first a bona-fide killer of bison. Chambered for the massive .45-120-550 case, it tipped the scales two ounces over 17 pounds. The aristocratic brother of the Sharps buffalo gun and champion at the thousand-yard line was the Sharps Creedmoor. Mr. Sterling’s elegant example sported a wind gauge front sight, and two vernier rears, one of which was mounted on the rifle’s heel for use in the supine, or back position.